DreamWorks and Participant Media’s holdover The Help remained the No. 1 film early Friday evening, but is now looking at a weekend gross of $10 to $12 million, versus $15 million.

Colombiana was in the No. 2 position on Friday, but may not crack $10 million for the weekend, lower than expected. The rest of the brood -- Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and Our Idiot Brother -- may only reach $6 million or $7 in their openings.

By Friday afternoon, theater owners in the Northeast had started announcing plans to shut their doors.

AMC Entertainment, one of the nation’s largest theater circuits, has said that theaters in Norfolk, Va., Baltimore, Md., and Washington, D.C., will close on Saturday, and predicts that numerous New York theaters will be closed on Sunday. The circuit also is closing all New Jersey theaters at 6 p.m. Saturday.

And Clearview Cinemas, which operates 57 theaters along the Philadelphia-New York corridor, is closing all of its locations Saturday and Sunday.

Other circuits are likely to follow suit, especially as public transportation systems come to a standstill on Saturday in Philadelphia and New York City, making it difficult for employees to get to work.

Usually, distribution executives know by Friday afternoon how their films are faring, but the storm is making predictions problematic.